Slate-frame



UNITED sfrArEs PATENT oEEIoE.

`EDMUND MORRIS,` OF BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY. j.

sLATE-FRAME.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 11,134, dated June 20, `1854.

T0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, EnwUND'MoRRIs, of Burlington, in the county of Burlington and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Method for Making Frames for Ciphering-Slates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full` and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

glue, aided by nails, found desirable.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

I first take two pieces of board, of suitable size, a quarter inch thick, and by any tool adapted to the object, cut out two oblong squares of equal size, with the corners rounded, as seen at A A. These are hollow oblong squares, withthe centers of the board taken out, having a rim of a width proper for the size of the slate about to be framed. By means of any convenient tool, I then cut a rabbet B on the face of each rim, next to its inner edge, the depth of which rabbet is equal to one half the thickness of the slate, so that when the two rims are placed in Contact, 'the slate will fill up the whole rabbet, and be held secure and firm. One of these rims being laid on a table, with the rabbet face upward, the whole upper surface is covered with marine glue or other suitable cement, and the slate dropped into the rabbet. The other rim, also coated with glue on its rabbeted face, is then laid down on the rst, after which, the frame thus completed, is taken and compressed by any to adhere firmly together.

convenient process, so as to cause the whole It is then smoothed off, and the completed frame, as ready for market, is shown by Figure C, having but a single joint, which is slightly visible on the outer edge of the frame.

The grain of the wood of one half the frame runs across the grain of the other half. This arrangement of the grain, combined with the great surface on which the cement is made to act, braces the frame so thoroughly as to make it much stronger than the old-fashioned frame, whose whole strength is dependent on a slight wooden peg at each corner, continually liable to break, or to drop out by shrinking of the wood. There is, moreover, no disagreeable rattling of the slate in its frame, as it is tightly cementedto the wood work, while this frame can be made at a less price, as there is no loss of lumber, the center piece fromeach rim being cut up to form a frame for the neXt smaller size.` And as nearly all sawing up of the stuff is dispensed with a cheaper class of labor can be employed in manufacturing them. The substitution of the round corners for the sharp angular ones now in use, possesses the merit of saving the desk from being bruised and otherwise indented, as is now done by the striking of the aforesaid sharp corners upon it.

Vhat I claim as my invention and/desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Constructing a slate frame of corresponding halves, of such a shape that a single joint combines them with each other at the same time that it firmly secures the slate between them, substantially as herein set forth.

EDMUND MORRIS. 

